A new concept for recycling of thermosetting resins I: The case of crosslinkable copolyesters

Abstract

A new approach for the recycling and the direct reuse of thermosetting resins has been successfully applied to a crosslinkable copolyester system. The process is essentially an acetolysis of the polymeric network leading to multifunctional oligomers with carboxy and acetoxy end groups. These species can react again upon heating to give a new crosslinked copolyester system. In this work, the parameters for the acetolysis process have been established and the products obtained have been compared to the starting ones, by differential scanning calorimetry, thermogravimetric analysis, mass spectrometry and dynamic mechanical analysis. The hydrolysis of the crosslinked copolyester has also been studied as a variation of recycling resulting in recovery of the monomeric units which compose the network.